Hurricane
Well-Known Member
Well, Duquesa to Sant Carles actually.
John has asked me to write this follow up to the thread that he posted last week on his new boat.
John had phoned me a few days earlier – the boat was at last his and he needed to get her form Duquesa to her new home at Sant Carles. We agreed to meet at Malaga Airport where one of Clive’s team would drive us to the boat. During the previous week, Clive had arranged to relaunch the boat, clean her and generally get her ready for hand over.
SWMBO and I know Duquesa well. It was there that we did our YM and DS some 5 years ago. Clive is well known on these forums as the guy who owns the sea school in the warm waters of the Med but more recently he has been running high speed boat trips from the harbour. We also popped in for lunch a couple of years ago whilst delivering Jennywren to the Med.
Anyway, we arrived in brilliant sunshine – I can’t believe there is ever bad weather in this part of the Med – its always been sunny when we’ve been there. As expected, John’s boat was launched, ready and waiting.
So the afternoon was spent checking kit and making sure she was fit for the run up to Sant Carles.
John had decided to break the trip into three parts. The first part would be the shortest but long enough for him to get used to the boat. He chose Almerimar as the first stop. Being about 140 miles away, it would give us a good indication of the fuel burn and the range we could expect. In fact, as it turned out, the previous owner had told John that the fuel tanks were larger than they actually were and could have caused us problems if John hadn’t planned the trip cautiously.
So the following morning we had a good breakfast and off we went.
Things couldn’t be better – flat seas – brilliant sunshine – this is the life – well it was great at the start of the day but, as we know, all good things have a habit of coming to an end!!
This was the track for the first day.
Now – I bet you are thinking – what is the difference between the blue and red lines.
Well, the blue line was our intended route and the red line was the actual track that we took. And you can see that, a few hours after starting, we had change our plans – the sea had become rough. A large beam sea had developed and we were making slow progress. The boat was handling things well but the crew (me included) were finding it difficult – and this is the Med!! – we don’t do this sort of thing out here!! I suggested to John that we should turn and run closer in. It took about 45 mins but the change worked and we were soon again running along comfortably. In fact we were even able to spot some dolphins and a few whales just before we arrived at our overnight stop.
Day 1 – 123 miles (the red line)
Almerimar was very pleasant – we were able to refuel that evening and do our first fuel calcs. It seemed that we wouldn’t be able to make Sant Carles in the 2 stops that John had planned. It would need another stop – well, for fuel anyway. John’s overall fuel calculations were fine – the engines were burning at his expected rate – it was the size of the tanks that changed the plan. Amongst the boat’s paperwork, we found an old user manual and this confirmed that the information that John had been given was incorrect. The tanks were smaller. No problem – that’s why John had adopted this strategy. The whole point of doing a controlled run the first day was to check that these kind of things don’t cause you any major problems.
Over the previous week, we had all been watching the weather. There seemed to be a three day “window” to get the boat up to Sant Carles. The boat’s range shorter than expected meant that we now had some work to do. So day 2 saw us up early and off. Our challenge was to get to Alicante that evening and we now knew that an extra fuel stop was required. Heavy seas soon reduced our speed to 10 knots and we were beginning to think that the overall plan of three days was slipping away. But “good old” Windguru came true again, predicting the calmer weather conditions that we were able to enjoy later in the morning. John kept the pressure on, increasing the throttles as the sea state slackened. We finally arrived at our planned fuel stop only an hour late. We wanted to get to Mazarron (just short of Cartegena) for lunch where we would refuel and take a couple of hours off for a bite to eat. The heavier seas earlier in the day meant that there was only time for a quick sandwich before setting off for Alicante.
The afternoon was fantastic – flat seas again and we were able to push the boats cruise speed into the upper 20’s.
Nav lights were switched on and we finally arrived in Alicante just after dark.
Day 2 – Almerimar to Alicante - 179 miles
That was the difficult leg done – 179 miles – we were knackered – a quick supper and bed. We still had a long haul ahead of us if we were to beat the weather.
Day 3 saw us up and in the local café for breakfast – a BIG English breakfast to set us up for the day.
A quick repair and off
Then as the SWMBOs stowed the fenders for the last time, I was able to take a few shots of the Port of Alicante.
The final day was a bit uneventful – we now had trust in the boat and things were settling down nicely. We decided not to refuel in Alicante but to find somewhere close to the corner of Valencia bay where we could “top out” the tanks and then make it all the way home. We chose Morayra and the morning’s cruise to get there was on flat water and brilliant sunshine.
more........
John has asked me to write this follow up to the thread that he posted last week on his new boat.
John had phoned me a few days earlier – the boat was at last his and he needed to get her form Duquesa to her new home at Sant Carles. We agreed to meet at Malaga Airport where one of Clive’s team would drive us to the boat. During the previous week, Clive had arranged to relaunch the boat, clean her and generally get her ready for hand over.
SWMBO and I know Duquesa well. It was there that we did our YM and DS some 5 years ago. Clive is well known on these forums as the guy who owns the sea school in the warm waters of the Med but more recently he has been running high speed boat trips from the harbour. We also popped in for lunch a couple of years ago whilst delivering Jennywren to the Med.
Anyway, we arrived in brilliant sunshine – I can’t believe there is ever bad weather in this part of the Med – its always been sunny when we’ve been there. As expected, John’s boat was launched, ready and waiting.
So the afternoon was spent checking kit and making sure she was fit for the run up to Sant Carles.
John had decided to break the trip into three parts. The first part would be the shortest but long enough for him to get used to the boat. He chose Almerimar as the first stop. Being about 140 miles away, it would give us a good indication of the fuel burn and the range we could expect. In fact, as it turned out, the previous owner had told John that the fuel tanks were larger than they actually were and could have caused us problems if John hadn’t planned the trip cautiously.
So the following morning we had a good breakfast and off we went.
Things couldn’t be better – flat seas – brilliant sunshine – this is the life – well it was great at the start of the day but, as we know, all good things have a habit of coming to an end!!
This was the track for the first day.
Now – I bet you are thinking – what is the difference between the blue and red lines.
Well, the blue line was our intended route and the red line was the actual track that we took. And you can see that, a few hours after starting, we had change our plans – the sea had become rough. A large beam sea had developed and we were making slow progress. The boat was handling things well but the crew (me included) were finding it difficult – and this is the Med!! – we don’t do this sort of thing out here!! I suggested to John that we should turn and run closer in. It took about 45 mins but the change worked and we were soon again running along comfortably. In fact we were even able to spot some dolphins and a few whales just before we arrived at our overnight stop.
Day 1 – 123 miles (the red line)
Almerimar was very pleasant – we were able to refuel that evening and do our first fuel calcs. It seemed that we wouldn’t be able to make Sant Carles in the 2 stops that John had planned. It would need another stop – well, for fuel anyway. John’s overall fuel calculations were fine – the engines were burning at his expected rate – it was the size of the tanks that changed the plan. Amongst the boat’s paperwork, we found an old user manual and this confirmed that the information that John had been given was incorrect. The tanks were smaller. No problem – that’s why John had adopted this strategy. The whole point of doing a controlled run the first day was to check that these kind of things don’t cause you any major problems.
Over the previous week, we had all been watching the weather. There seemed to be a three day “window” to get the boat up to Sant Carles. The boat’s range shorter than expected meant that we now had some work to do. So day 2 saw us up early and off. Our challenge was to get to Alicante that evening and we now knew that an extra fuel stop was required. Heavy seas soon reduced our speed to 10 knots and we were beginning to think that the overall plan of three days was slipping away. But “good old” Windguru came true again, predicting the calmer weather conditions that we were able to enjoy later in the morning. John kept the pressure on, increasing the throttles as the sea state slackened. We finally arrived at our planned fuel stop only an hour late. We wanted to get to Mazarron (just short of Cartegena) for lunch where we would refuel and take a couple of hours off for a bite to eat. The heavier seas earlier in the day meant that there was only time for a quick sandwich before setting off for Alicante.
The afternoon was fantastic – flat seas again and we were able to push the boats cruise speed into the upper 20’s.
Nav lights were switched on and we finally arrived in Alicante just after dark.
Day 2 – Almerimar to Alicante - 179 miles
That was the difficult leg done – 179 miles – we were knackered – a quick supper and bed. We still had a long haul ahead of us if we were to beat the weather.
Day 3 saw us up and in the local café for breakfast – a BIG English breakfast to set us up for the day.
A quick repair and off
Then as the SWMBOs stowed the fenders for the last time, I was able to take a few shots of the Port of Alicante.
The final day was a bit uneventful – we now had trust in the boat and things were settling down nicely. We decided not to refuel in Alicante but to find somewhere close to the corner of Valencia bay where we could “top out” the tanks and then make it all the way home. We chose Morayra and the morning’s cruise to get there was on flat water and brilliant sunshine.
more........
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